


Sun-Scorned

by Yojimbra



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Halloween, I can't do horror, Lesbomancy later, Maybe horror?, Multi, Romance, vampire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-14 06:42:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16035083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yojimbra/pseuds/Yojimbra
Summary: Inflicted by something, Sakura struggles with her lose humanity as she tries to find first a way to satiate her hunger for blood, and a cure. Halloween fic and totally not an excuse to have Sakura be a queen bitch. (Okay, maybe a little)





	1. Chapter 1

From the moment the sun touched her skin she knew nothing but agony. 

Every inch of body felt like it was engulfed in a thousand-degree acid, no acid would be more merciful than this. Acid would eat away at her nerves until she no longer felt its burning sting until it found fresh turf to burn. No, she was vividly aware of her every cell being set ablaze over and over again. 

Boiling blood gave turned to steam in her veins as it twirled throughout her body leaving nothing but misery in her their wake in an attempt to escape her body. There was no mercy from this pain, no break, no reprieve. Just more pain. 

It was pain beyond death. 

“Sakura!” She heard Naruto shout. His arms engulfed her, pulling her close to try and protect shield her from whatever was assaulting her. She could hear his heartbeat, feel it, all it did was remind her of the hunger that was growing inside her. 

The pain of hunger was almost enough to deafen the rest of her pain. But it wasn’t enough, instead, it added to it, a building mountain of pain that blocked off every part of the world around her aside from that infernal sun that glared down upon her with a scornful wrath that made her body weak. 

She should have passed out by now. She should be dead by now. 

“What’s happening to her?” Naruto’s frantic cries echoed from above. “It’s it a jutsu? Is this because of the Kyuubi? A genjutsu?”

Then the pain took hold of her, flaring up like the snap of a campfire, dazzling her with sparks each of which was a twister of glass that tore through her body taking away the skin, meat, and bones, until all that was left was her nerves, each one in more pain than she had ever felt in her life. 

She could feel the icy tendrils of death piercing into her heart, ready to claim her at a moments notice. But that release never came, it was halted by the fires of her pain if only to make her spend a few more hours of this torture. 

“Please,” her breath tore against her throat like knives. “Make it stop.” 

She didn’t hear their reply. Only some small comfort as Naruto’s jacket was placed over her, blocking the sun’s burning scorn if only for a moment. His heart beat against his chest, each thump like a lion’s roar in her ear that sent a chill down her spine that gathered in her stomach. With that melodic roar so close to her ear and the burning barely an echo Sakura allowed that pain of hunger to take her, as a new feeling washed over her.

A need for sleep. 

It was short-lived, being violently ripped from her when Naruto’s jacket was ripped from her, exposing her once more to that blistering sun. Her skin was on fire this time, burning bright hot, and sharp. 

She was placed onto a bed, blankets covering her, the fabric thin, allowing bits of sunlight to stab at her at any chance they got, forcing her to stay awake. They buzzed around her like bees now, a bunch of nurses and doctors their medical babble was not lost on her. They were lost, frantic. 

“What’s happened here?” Tsunade’s voice rang out among them, snapping the hive into order with but a word. That was her master, making others in the field that much better simply by being. 

The blanket was moved and she saw her Master’s gaze upon her for just a moment before she felt the sun upon her. She screamed. Hard, long, and without pause. Her body thrashing against her own control, moving the blanket and causing more of that hellish pain to wash over her body. 

Another blanket fell on top of her, then another, shielding her from even the most persistent rays of the sun. “Something is causing her to be hyper photosensitive.” 

“Then don’t take any pictures of her!” Naruto’s frantic shout sounded close. She could still hear his beating heart. He was worried about her. 

“Someone get that idiot out of here!” Tsunade barked, the hive scrambled, pushing Naruto out. “Shizune, start prepping a surgery room, I want all the windows closed, and as few lights as we can get away with! Just hang in there Sakura, I’ll get you fixed.” 

A mask was slipped over her, and a sweet gas filled her mouth. She took deep, long breaths, awaiting the tender sleep that it would bring her. Her head began to spin everything was whirling in a dervish of pain centered around her stomach. 

“I can’t find her pulse.”

“I can’t draw any blood.”

“How is she still alive?” 

“Shut up!” Her master barked. “You, check her heart, you, go get her a blood bag, she’s blood type O, she donated once a week, you should be able to find some of hers in the storage, You quit standing there like an idiot and go help Shizune with the room!” 

“Don’t worry Sakura,” Tsunade said once again. “I’ll fix this. I swear.” 

Time was a blur, the gas only half worked, making her body numb to the pain and relaxing her to the point where she couldn’t open her eyes. She could hear their breaths, the blood rushing through their veins, the sweat gathering on their foreheads. The commands Tsunade delivered carried out without question. But it was their beating hearts that lulled her away from the here and now. 

Awareness came jarring into her when she felt something warm enter her arm. It burned like hot water through frozen pipes tearing through her vascular system and pushing the hunger away. Tsunade loomed over her, the lights above her were dim, but still buzzed with the wrath of a thousand bees. But beside her master sat that tantalizing red liquid slowly dripping into her veins, teasing her. 

She had never seen anything so beautiful, and so red. 

Her master pushed a tear from her eyes and looked down at her with pity. “Go back to sleep Sakura, we’re making progress, we’ll have you back in a heartbeat.” 

“Blood,” she could practically taste the word on her lips, that sweet, almost iron salt like taste, that came from licking her own wounds as a child. But better. Better than dango, udon, or any of her favorite sweets. “Need more, blood.”

“I know,” Tsunade whispered, bringing a hand up to touch her face, “You lost a lot of blood, but its working, so just go to sleep okay? Save your strength.” 

This was worse than any diet. The strength in her arm was gone, and her chakra had never felt so thin. Tsunade’s fingers traced along her forehead, chakra flooding into her head, and the world fell out from under her. 

XXXX

Voracity snapped her into the dark reality of her room, it controlled her, body, mind, will to consume. To feed. Three heartbeats were just beyond the walls. She knew one of them. She knew it well. But that didn’t matter. She was hungry. Her bare feet hit the cold slick floor, the covers dropping helplessly around her. 

A glimpse of red caught her eyes, dangling there like a tantalizing apple upon a metallic tree, barely a drip was reaching her body now. It wasn’t enough. She needed more. She needed all of it. Right now! 

She grabbed the half-empty blood bag, tearing into it with her mouth. That sweet sanguine liquid poured into her. Pushing away the hunger, and the headache away like she was wiping them from a whiteboard. It spilled on her bathing her in that glorious crimson color, she had always loved red, but now it was truly a wonderful color. 

When the bag was depleted and every single drop inside was consumed, her mind finally woke up to find her body naked save for a simple hospital gown, wires, IVs sticking out of her like some kind of science project. Then there was the blood that covered her hands. 

Logic and training told her to wash it off, instincts said lick it up. Bringing her hand up to her mouth Sakura took a small lick of the substance. It had such a unique and pleasant flavor. It was, her? This was her blood. How did she know that? Why did she know that? 

“What happened to me?” Her voice was different, but still the same, it was deeper, more seductive, and hungry. She licked her hand again, getting between her fingers to keep a growing hunger barely at bay. Tsunade had performed an operation on her or had done something. 

The room was dark, and not a recovery room where they kept the patients, those had windows, sunshine improved moods, improved moods increased recovery. But here in a room completely devoid of light not only could she see everything with the sharpness and contrast as she could in the brightest of days, but she also felt at home. 

Like she belonged her, engulfed in a blanket of darkness.

“A chart,” She muttered pulling the remaining, wires and IVs from her body, the heart rate monitor gave an annoying beep, that she silenced with the flip of a switch. Tsunade was through, never leaving even the slightest detail unchecked, Shizune even more so. “There has to be a chart.” 

It hung off the end of her bed like the precursor of a tombstone. Even in the darkness, she could read with ease, finding each and every character somehow crisper than before. The medical jargon was not lost on her, even in her master's sloppy notes. “Subject was introduced to an unknown substance.” 

That would be the liquid that Kabuto had splashed on her in his desperation to escape. She thought she had the upper hand, but that proved to be a folly, Kabuto was toying with her, just waiting for her anger to get the better of her, waiting for her mistake. And she did charging at him in his lab. Dammit. She was still weak. 

“Extreme sensitivity to sunlight - even the smallest amount would cause the skin to blister, recovery is quick,” she looked at her arm, unmarred from scars, only a single drop of blood that she had missed. Not anymore. There were no wounds, but she remembered the pain. She remembered that all too clearly. Not something she wanted to experience again. 

“Extremely anemic - subjects red blood cell count was almost zero, recovered quickly once a Blood transfusion was in place, but levels were still low and dropping.” Other notes dotted around this, thoughts on the cause, a pathogen that was targeting blood cells? A virus? Some new disease? A jutsu? None of them held out. “Subject kept mumbling about blood? Self-diagnostic most likely.”

She read past the dozen or so pages of failed tests that ran on her. There was a line about being moved to a separate room for recovery. No quarantine? “Naruto Uzumaki, Yamato, Sai, were all healthy and after a check up allowed to return. Likely some aggressive chemical Orochimaru developed as a weapon.” 

That was right, she reached beyond the wall of pain that scared her memory of what happened the last time she was awake. They were searching for Sasuke with the information she got from Sasori, and then she ran into Kabuto, got separated, fought him. And then she punched that vat that contained a pink liquid that spilled over her. He dodged. 

She nearly died because she was too weak, too stupid, to useless. She ground her teeth, running her tongue against their back until she felt a sharp prick. Were her teeth always that sharp? Or that long? Wait, no it was just her mind playing tricks on her, they weren’t that long. 

“Long story short,” She tossed the chart onto her mattress standing to look about the room once more, a storage room, one of the few places in the hospital that wasn’t drenched in sunlight. “I look like shit right now.” 

But she felt fine. Better than fine even. Like this was the most alive she had felt in a long, long, time. Everything felt fine. Aside from that gnawing hunger in the back of her head. Did the nurses leave her anything? 

Like a big, red, juicy, steak, barely cooked on the outside so that the blood would explode into her- blood? She wanted blood. She craved blood. That wasn’t normal. Not by a long shot. Her teeth felt sharp again, sticking her finger in she found that she had two, long fangs where her incisors once were. Far, from normal. 

Placing a hand over her heart, Sakura felt her own pulse beating in her chest, faint, distant, a pulse so low it shouldn’t even exist. “What the hell happened to me?” 

Food first, emotional crisis later. The nurses should have left her something to eat, anything. Ahh, a tray right next to the bed. Nothing fancy, just the usual garbage stuff they served in the hospital. But that jello would be good, a jiggling red mass like congealed blood, just sitting there waiting for her to stick her fangs into it and suck. 

“Okay, clearly I’m just having hallucinations due to low blood sugar, just eat some food and I’ll be fine.” She cracked open the jello, wincing at the overly sweet smell like it had been allowed to ripen for far too long. Probably just her nose being overly sensitive. Besides, it looked like blood. 

Ash. The food turned to ash in her mouth filling her with a dry chalky filling that left her wincing after every bite. It wasn’t just the jello, the fruit, vegetables, even the bred, all crumbled to nothing but a foul-tasting paste the moment it entered her mouth. It was hard to keep down. Okay, so she lost her sense of taste. That was fine. 

She probably just needed more blood. Not to eat. Just that her taste buds weren’t functioning because of how anemic she was. That was it. Her stomach gurgled and she was sent to the nearest trash can, puking up everything she shoved down her throat. And the answer was clear. She needed blood. 

“No,” She pushed back against the urges, finding her way to her bed once more, and sat there shaking. Feeling colder by the second. The blanket didn’t help. Nothing helped. The hunger was there, a constant reminder that she needed blood. “This can’t be happening to me.” 

She closed her eyes, trying to wake up from this twisted dream. Only the beating of a heart, strong, healthy, full of life - full of blood - awaited her when she closed her eyes. It wasn’t hers. She knew whose it was.

“Naruto?” It sounded like he was on the other side of the door, he was sleeping, sitting down, head tilted to one side. A red flash screamed across her eyes, flaring with his every heartbeat, growing from around his chest, and filling out his cardiovascular system. It all looked so tantalizing. 

Her body moved on its own, gliding towards him without sound. The door creaked as she opened it into the hallway, where a piercing white light blinded her for but a moment. It was not the sun, just the inward lights of the hospital. 

And there she saw Naruto, asleep in a chair opposite of her door, head braced against a pillar that jutted out from the wall ever so slightly, his jacket serving as a crude blanket. He was waiting for her. That was almost sweet. 

His neck was exposed, blood rushing through the main vein of his body, just ripe for the taking. All she needed to do was sink her teeth in. It was so alluring, so mouthwatering. It was everything that she wanted and more. 

No. She stopped herself, just an inch from his neck, fangs bared, ready to bite. There was blood elsewhere. Much more blood, better blood. Blood that didn’t belong to Naruto. She licked her lips, staring once more at that tantalizing bit of neck. She wanted it so badly. To the point of arousal. 

An image flashed, of him shirtless, pressed against the wall, as she exploded his muscular body while a bit of blood spilled from his neck as she sucked greedily on him. 

“Sakura,” Naruto moaned in his sleep. 

Crap. he was waking up. She needed to leave, what would people think if they saw her wandering the hospital at night to try and get more blood. 

The shadows were her friend, and the blood storage room was close. Her mouth salivated as she thought of those two refrigerators filled to the brim with blood. Just the thought was enough to satisfy her for the moment. Whatever self-control she had vanished when she got there. 

Ripping into the first bag she poured the contents into her mouth, moaning as it filled her up. Making her fill more alive than ever as the hunger was nothing but a distant memory. She didn’t even remember opening it and found herself fangs deep into her second bag, blood dripping from her mouth like she was a two-year-old eating pasta. 

Her reflection caught her eye and brought with it a sense of dread. Rather, it was her lack of reflection, in the dim light, the reflective metal portrayed a warped image of the world around her, her bloodstained gown, the blood bag hanging from her mouth. But she was missing. 

“What the hell?” She scrambled around, looking in every surface she could find, trying to find her, what she looked like. All of them told the same story. She had no reflection, though she could clearly see herself. 

“What’s wrong with me?”


	2. Chapter 2

The graveyard shift sucked. Working at the hospital normally sucked, but the night shift was much much worse. For starters, she basically got absolutely no beauty sleep - not that she needed it - then there was the fact that she was basically the warden for a bunch of sleeping patients and various other medics that were on call but passed out in the restrooms.

And then there was the poorly lit maze of hallways that were filled with random noises. 

Which was why she stayed here, in the nicely lit office area flipping through the magazine she managed to sneak in. She shouldn’t even be here! It was all Sakura’s fault for not being here. Well, she was here. But she was a patient. Seriously, what the hell did that idiot do to make Tsunade worry so much?

Not that she was worried. Nope. Not at all. The fact that she had stress eaten her way out of a six months streak of having perfectly planned and balanced meals had nothing to do with her best friends current state. Not a damn thing. She placed another chip into her mouth, it was salty, greasy, and was basically screaming add another inch to her pants, with a loud crunch.

“Ino,” She looked up and saw the hot doctor. There were many medics in the hospital, most were female, some were old men, but there was only one doctor that was hot. And he was the only good thing about the night shift. He gave a long yawn, and smacked his lips twice, running a hand through his purple hair, the same tired look on his face like he had just woken up giving him the best bedroom eyes that made her spine all tingly. 

That and he had the best beard ever. And she normally hated beards, but his well-groomed-but-still-sloppy close to the face look just worked for him oh so well. 

“Yes?” She cooed, “Doctor Shinso?” 

He slapped a pile of clipboards in front of her, and all arousal vanished from her. Right. Her job. “I need you to do the rounds,” He gave a long yawn, “And if that Naruto kid is camping out in front of Sakura’s room kick him out or give him a bed, I don’t care which.” 

She sighed at the pile grabbing it with both hands letting the weight pull her out of her chair. Her fingers were still greasy. “Can I have him share a bed with Sakura?” 

Shinso didn’t pay that comment any mind walking away from her waving his own clipboard over his head. Dammit, why was he so hot? And cool? And completely out of her age range. 

Damn, she needed a boyfriend. Sure she was still in love with Sasuke, but he wasn’t here. That guy with the nice abs that came into the hospital Naruto and Sakura seemed like her kind of guy. What was his name again? Bah, she’d just bug Sakura about it or Naruto. But Naruto probably has some weird ass nickname for him. 

But first, it was time to leave her bubble and venture out into the labyrinthine of darkness that was the hospital. It wasn’t that she was afraid of the dark, she was a ninja after all. But that didn’t mean she had to like the prospects of not being able to read a sign warning her that she’s about to enter a room filled with some kind of a deadly disease or something. 

That was it. Nothing to do with the darkness just a healthy understanding of germ theory. 

The buzzing of the lights accompanied the lone sound of her footfalls, creating a symphony of silence that chased after her. What little light and warmth the overhead lamps gave her was easily forgotten when she entered where the light didn’t quite reach. 

“When the hell is the new hospital going to be finished?” She whined skimming through her assignments. The supply closet was nearby, and the fewer trips the better. “Okay, so I should get a bag of blood and a new I.V. bag for Sakura,” She bit her frown, just what the hell happened to her? 

She jumped and gave a small yelp when a couch echoed throughout the hallways like a lion's roar. She hated this place! It was so creepy! And filled with sick people! Why the hell did she want to become a medic in the first place? She didn’t do sick!

Dammit, she was a ninja! She could handle this! Sure, it was just a bunch of sick creepy noises in the dark old hospital. There was no reason for her to worry about anything. It was just filled with sick people and other medics. 

Steeling herself once more she marched towards the supply room, head held high with a sense of pride. That was washed away when another creak clambered through the hallways. 

The door to the supply room was a wooden and steel monstrosity, left-over from the wars when the building operated as a backup command center. As such the door had carved itself a rut along the tiled floor where it dragged if it wasn’t lifted properly. A feat only Sakura and Tsunade bothered with. 

It was cold like she was opening up some decrypt tomb of a forgotten king, filled to the brim with dust, spiders, and corpses all bathed in a thick darkness. The air had a faint iron smell, almost like the taste of blood of blood. It brought about a lump in her throat that was threatening to expel those chips she had been stress eating. 

She palmed the side of the wall for the light switch, staring into that darkened room. It almost felt like something was watching her back, something hungry, something that wanted to eat her. But that was just her imagination going into overdrive. Again, she blamed the chips. 

Tomorrow she would so be back on-

Thunder sounded the moment she found the light switch, causing her to jump back and scream. She was quick to cover her mouth, hopping from one foot to the other as she weathered the flight response that was coursing through her veins. 

“Stupid,” she swore, looking at the metal pan that she must have knocked over as it slowly drummed along the floor. Placing a hand over her beating heart she waited for the adrenaline to fade, hopefully she didn’t wake anybody up with that little scream. “Seriously, why the hell is this place so understaffed? And so fucking dark? It’s not like more lights wouldn’t make things better! Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck.”

With a growl, she walked into the room, and found a pool of blood on the ground, along with a punctured bag of blood. “Great, some newbie must have spilled it and decided to wait for the next person to-”

A breath on her neck. 

She spun to face nothing but the empty hallway behind her. “Sakura, better get better soon, I’m losing my mind covering her shifts.” She looked back down at the puddle of blood and carefully stepped to the side, retrieving what she needed from the fridge. “I’ll let someone else take care of that.” 

XXXX

Shadows clung to her like she was its brood mother. 

Sakura dropped from the ceiling the moment Ino turned the lights off without making a single noise. She could still hear the heartbeat of her friend as it pumped that warm delicous blood through veins. Her fang’s had been close enough to Ino’s neck that she could her warmth, taste her skin. And savor the blood. 

It took every ounce of her willpower not to bite into her carotid arteries and suck Ino dry. Cold blood was fine, but that was just it. It was cold. She wanted a warm fresh meal, from a strong, healthy- “What the hell is wrong with me?” 

She placed a hand on the fridge and closed her eyes. The light was blinding at first and she vaulted up to the ceiling faster than she thought possible. And stuck there, without using her chakra. Sight, hearing, smell, touch, and definitely taste were all well beyond what she was used to feeling. Worse was that she could still hear Naruto’s and now Ino’s heartbeats somewhere in the hospital. 

Ino’s was accelerated, she never did like the dark, while Naruto’s was low, he was still asleep, but that wouldn’t last long given how close the two sounds were. That would mean that Ino was near her room, where she should still be sleeping. 

This was bad, this was really bad. How was she going to explain sneaking out of her bed to go eat blood? She could just kill them and suck their- she shook her head and tried to push that thought away, burying it into the darkest corner of her mind. She was not going to kill her friends, she was not going to suck their blood either.

No matter how mouth watering the thought was of sinking her fangs into their body and relishing in their taste. Ino probably tasted like a fresh salad with how carefully she made her meals, Naruto a bowl of ramen. Tsunade would probably get her drunk. Real drunk. 

And now was not the time to be thinking about this! 

“I need to find a cure, find out what’s making me like this.” She glanced at the fridge, that blood was meant to save lives, and she had already eaten two bags of it. The craving wasn’t strong right now, but she’d be hungry again soon, especially if she ran into somebody else. She bit her lip at the thought, struggling to push down the urges. 

It wasn’t safe here. She might hurt someone. She needed to be away from people and to find out what Kabuto did to her, there had to be something left at that base. And if a few of those could keep her from murdering someone until she found a solution then she better take a few. As soon as she was cured, she’d donate all the blood back, she’d make Naruto do it too. 

Crap, Ino was talking to Naruto now. She needed to leave. Now. before it was too late. 

Four bags would be good enough, better make it five.

Shadows clung to her like a cloak as she darted through the hallways of the hospital, moving with more speed and grace than she ever had before. Enhanced physical ability was something else to add to the ever growing list of what the fuck was wrong with her. Without the bloodsucking, random thoughts of murder, and being burned by the sun this might actually be useful. 

Perhaps it was some kind of soldier pill variant that was very experimental? That would be in line with what Orochimaru wanted. 

She was outside before Ino had entered her room. The naked night embraced her, she could see to the horizon with ease, everything in a crystal clarity that she didn’t even know existed. The smells of Konoha buzzed around her like bees carrying strings back to their origins, it was so easy to pick one out and follow it. The sounds, however, brought nothing but a headache. 

Which way was the lab again? Oh, she could just follow Naruto’s scent back to it. Now to get out of the village before anybody noticed her. 

With the slightest tap of her foot, she launched herself forward, moving faster than she had ever dreamed of, in three such leaps she had cleared the wall, by a wide margin. Add super strength, and speed to that ever-growing list of boons. 

If she kept this pace up she’d make it there in no time. 

Unfortunately, time was not on her side, as before she reached her destination, the sun began to peak its head out from the horizon, her skin felt hot. She needed to find shelter quickly. A cave, a barn, anything. 

This was not going to be how she died. 

Just as her skin was beginning to burn Sakura found what she was looking for. A small cave near a river. She dove in, wrapping herself in darkness and waited for the night to fall once more.


	3. Chapter 3

Amid the thousand sounds that assailed when she stepped out into the fresh night, one stood out to her. A scream, far away and nearly lost among the rushing water found its way directly to her. It was far away, perhaps a little less than a mile, but it still rang like a bell, it was the scream of a woman and one that was smothered before it could end. 

She sprinted towards the noise, caution told her that she needed to stay hidden so that the others wouldn’t find her until she could find a cure or a substitute for blood, but she was a good person, and she couldn’t live with herself if she did nothing. At least that’s what she wanted to tell herself, she went through a bag of blood as she waited for the sun to set, and the remaining four looked tempting. 

Despite not sleeping she felt no weariness in her body; more evidence that this was some kind of soldier pill experiment gone both horribly wrong and incredibly well. It was one of many things she discovered in the cave, another was how to bring out her fangs at will. The most interesting was the shadows that heeded her call, the ones that seemed to stick to her, bathing her in a deeper darkness. There was much she could do with them that would make Shikamaru jealous. 

Shadows crawled along her body, gathering around her torso and covering the blood-soaked hospital gown that was her clothing, she should have stopped by her home - but would she have been able to stop herself? - and grab a set of clothes. Real clothes, not the gown of shadows that was currently hugging her body. 

A small village, a few homes, and building along the riverside shined like a beacon in the night with the few lights scattered about it. Farms, made up much of this villages lively hood a bit of wheat, but mostly rice. Despite sitting off of any major road a sizeable tavern served the village, and anybody that happened to pass through it. That building glowed with activity, she could smell the booze finding out every individual brew, but there was also the tantalizing smell of food. 

She stopped on the roof of the tavern. Since when did she consider people food? This was a mistake she needed to be away from people not in the middle of an entire village that she could easily destroy. She needed to leave, she was a ninja, not some hero that went out of her way to save every scream. And she was putting them all in danger. Even knowing that she had a few blood bags still on her, the temptation to simply find one and-

“No!” Her eyes darted towards the alleyway, where the source of the girl’s scream came from. It was the same scream that brought her here. A man - drunk - had his pants around his waist as he forced himself on some girl who was probably no older than she was. “Uncle, please.”

A rage boiled inside of her, mixing with the hunger, into something that burned with a white-hot righteousness in the pit of her being. The pushing him off her, the telling her to run, the crushing of his rib, the ease of which her fingers slid through his throat, all drowned in the sweet taste of his fear as she drunk the life from him. She was right, fresh blood was better. 

She stood in that alley basking in the afterglow of her first kill, no kill was wrong, she had done that before as a ninja. This was something else. It was a murder. And it left her with the echo of a pounding heart and a full stomach. The man - an old farmer with calloused hands and grey hair - sat in a lump beneath her feet, completely drained, with only a few splattered drops of blood from when she first ripped his throat open. 

The girl ran and gone to go get help. She’d have plenty of time to contemplate her murder of a civilian later. Once the high wore off. 

XXXX

A crater marked the entrance of Orochimaru’s lair, the result of Naruto’s rampage as the Kyuubi took over. Somehow that seemed far less frightening. But, what was even more worrying was the stillness of the place, before the place had just been creepy, the adrenilene and thought of finding Sasuke had made everything else seem less important. 

But now it was a place where not even the dead would tread; she liked it, almost felt like home. 

Why were there no ninja though? Surely Tsunade would have sent someone here to scour the ruins for information. They weren’t that undermanned were they? Or perhaps it was just some refusal to use anything Orochimaru used. Whatever the reason, it was to her benefit now. She might be able to find out where they went next and hunt down that Kabuto bastard for doing this to her in the first place. 

That was a murder she would commit with great glee. 

Her fingers traced along the darkened corridors that made up much of the complex careful not to make any noise beyond the faint sound of her own footfalls. No doubt there was still something that lurked in here. Some abomination, or unseen threat. She had seen the result of his experiments in the chunin exams. A sour note crossed her mind: she was one of his experiments now. Worse that she was a successful one. 

Retracing her steps proved easy, namely because it was a trail of destruction, with more than a few walls smashed so that the bedrock showed through. Probably wasn’t too smart to punch the walls like that in an underground complex. She’d probably do it again if it meant a chance to punch Kabuto though. Bastard represented everything wrong with medical jutsu. 

Then she arrived at the room where he splashed the substance on her. Well, more specifically where he shattered a tank and dumped a vat of the stuff on her. The room was filled with beakers, books, and various liquids that lined the walls. A table also stuck out of the wall, the spot where it had been screwed to the ground before she threw it marked the center of the room. 

She grabbed the first book she found - of course, Kabuto had chicken scratch - it was filled with chemicals, reactions, just theories, worth keeping, part of what was affecting her might be in there. But this felt far too involved to be a footnote in some journal. Worse case scenario was that it was an accident and she’d have to develop a cure from scratch. 

But if Kabuto was anything he was meticulous. Even with his stupid chicken scratch. 

Scroll after scroll, book after book, joined a growing pile in the middle of the floor, each one being skimmed for anything even remotely useful. There were diagnostics of the curse seal effects coupled with biopsies, a list of canidates, details of experiments, and their results. Often death. She found a log of all the drugs they pumped into Sasuke, a major side effect for most of them was the whole lack of emotion thing. 

She was going to murder the shit out of him. 

It was not the last book, but it was far from the first when she discovered something that caught her interest. Scribbled in Kabuto’s horrendous scrawl was: Subject T: resurrection serum.

Subject T: corpse recovered, strong will to live, possible candidate for the serum. 

Many of the pages that followed detailed the condition of the patient, height, build, injury, justu prowess, personality, everything was there. Her Uzumaki blood was frequently mentioned on the sides, often as an afterthought as a boon or possibly as a detriment to the treatment. 

Subject T: Failure, administration of the first serum was a failure, the subject showed no hea- She’s alive, no heartbeat, but very much alive, moving, and have full memories of everything that occurred despite being dead for a month. Complains about hunger a lot. 

 

Another description of the girl followed, highlighting many of the areas of change. No heart-beat, constantly hungry, inability to stomach regular food, enhanced muscles, pale skin, red eyes, acute hearing. Fangs. 

This was it, this was what she had. 

Subject T: Attempted to escape, killed two assistances - bodies drained of their blood, stopped outside by burning in direct sunlight. Nearly burnt to ashes after a few seconds of exposure, glaring weakness will attempt to improve. 

The pages that followed detailed her incarceration, the myriad of experiments that were done to the girl, from repeat flashes of direct sunlight in a specially designed room, to partial exposure. It was almost to much for her to bare. 

Subject T: After four days of not allowing her to feed, she begins to go feral. Physical and mental changes occur, elongated fangs, sunken eyes, claws, grey skin, while ferocity goes up, strength and thinking ability demonish a great deal. Kept chained for experimentation. 

Over the next year, Kabuto detailed little about the subject, sparse feedings, long starvations, testing the limits. It wasn’t until recently did he start to take interest in the project again. The girl was still alive so perhaps this was another path towards immortality. 

“She might still be here,” Sakura mumbled, closing the book with the snap of her fingers. She’d cure her too, but first, she needed to find out what exactly was in that resurrection serum. A sensation froze her as she reached for another book. Like a compass in her mind, pulling her towards something, like it was a desperate cry for help. 

She flipped open the book again, it had been over a year since the last time the subject had been fed, and her condition was deteriorating. It was possible that whatever was left of her might not be left for long if she didn’t get a proper meal soon. 

That sensation turned into a plea for help, a desperate cry that guided her down the hallways. Until she came to an Iron door, seals etched into its very surface like the feat was as easy as pen on paper. Lacking a proper key, she decided to open it the old fashion way. The stone groaned, metal creaked, and with a twist, the door - all fourteen inches of it - came out from the wall, the back side was marred by deep gashes and claw marks. 

“Hello?” She asked the abyss that sat before her. It took a moment to see the room clearly, dust and some leftover sealing power still barred her vision completely. But then it slowly came into focus.

Chains along the ground and walls snapped taught. And the feral creature Kabuto had described lashed out at her. Skin a leathery grey, face deformed into a haunting visage that looked to be constantly screaming in pain. The chains prevented the creature from lashing out at her, but even though it was fast, it still seemed so slow and sluggish. It hissed at her. 

This was the fate that waited for her if she didn’t feed. Nothing but a hissing monster that was completely consumed by its hunger. She did not fear this creature, she pitied it. The reason was lost to her, but rather than give the creature one of her few remaining bags of blood she slit her wrist, allowing her own blood to rise to the surface, glowing like a torch in the darkness. 

The monster stopped, eyes focused on her wrist as she waved it about just out of reach. Even when she moved into the creatures reach it still looked at her blood wide-eyed. 

“Go on,” She urged, taking another step forward. “Drink.” 

The creature did, sinking its fangs into her skin. It didn’t hurt, but she felt the loss of blood and the growing hunger return. Still, she had just sucked a fully grown man dry, she could spare some. 

Her sacrifice was awarded. As bit by bit, the creature grew less grotesque, shrinking in size, her features becoming more and more humanlike with each drop of blood she consumed. This had to be powered by chakra, the reaction was far to fast to be natural. 

The girl was beautiful, that much was obvious, long red hair, smooth pale skin, and an angular face all added to this. She didn’t look anything like the beast that had been standing before her a moment ago. 

“That’s enough,” Sakura nudged the girl back. “I have a blood bag if you’re still hungry.” 

“Holy fuck,” The girl groaned taking a step to stop herself from falling over. She stood blinking then glared at Sakura pulling at one of the chains still bound her. “Who the fuck are you?” 

“I’m Sakura, and I’m just like you,” 

“Yea, no shit. Hey, you want to give me a hand here?” She pulled at the chain with all her might, it creaked but the seals along it kept it strong. “Or at least go find the key or some shit.”

Sakura nodded, moving over to one of the chains. She smashed one of the links - and the floor beneath it - with one stomp, making the girl jump. “Can I get your name?” 

The girl blinked pulling on the loose chain to get a better look at it. That was the normal reaction to her uh, monstrous strength.

“It’s Tayuya.”


End file.
